


Don't take the Money

by Nightingale101



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bi Johnny Silverhand, Bi V, Coma, Dying charcter, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fix-It, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, Johnny is love sick, Mentions of Death, Nomad V (Cyberpunk 2077), Playing Guitar, Singing, So love sick it hurts my soul, Soft Johnny Silverhand, The Author Regrets Nothing, The Star ending, hes so soft it hurts my heart, i don't know what to tag, i'll add more tags when i can think of them, no beta we die like men, the author is also crying
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:47:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28257171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightingale101/pseuds/Nightingale101
Summary: Somebody broke me once, Love was a currencyA shimmering balance act, I think that I laughed at thatAnd I saw your face and hands, Coloured in sun and thenI think I understand~~**~~This was different. Those other times, love had burnt like an uncontrollable fire, consuming everything and everyone in its path and burning itself out in the process. It was all consuming, a fire they had lit under his skin that turned everything it touched to ash and ruin. But with V… with V it was different.  It was…. Warmth
Relationships: Johnny Silverhand/Female V, Johnny Silverhand/V, Past Kerry Eurodyne/Johnny Silverhand
Comments: 11
Kudos: 146





	1. Sweet disposition

**Author's Note:**

> Sotry Title: [ Don't take the Money ](https://open.spotify.com/album/10HKbC9lKDHGQvndGck6XJ?highlight=spotify:track:3ySU5vwQB33iGulwcUL9qQ) by Bleachers
> 
> Chapter title: [ Sweet disposition](https://open.spotify.com/track/16mWm9eOeEeUQku9OLp29t?si=KVRj3NHDTiqE-iLC02qN0g) by Temper Trap
> 
> Important Info: Based on the Star ending, V has the Nomad lifepath (But aside from that shes not going to be described a whole lot)

One

Sweet Disposition.

_A moment, a love_

_A dream, a laugh_

_A kiss, a cry_

_Our rights, our wrongs_

~~**~~

_“I don’t understand. They- Grayson said - at the oil fields”_

_“he either lied or wasn’t high enough up the Chain to be in the know.”_

_“But I-“_

_“Focus, We have to move. Reinforcements are probably on their way here as we speak.”_

_“I know- I just.”_

_“It’s alright, we can figure this out. Together, as a family.”_

_“yeah. Ok... one thing at a t- oh shit, that alarm. Fuck”_

_“We have to move. Now. Do you think you can help me carry him, V?”_

The voices came to him from far, far away, a lifetime away it felt like. filtering in through the inky blackness he currently found himself drifting in. afloat, lost, confused.

He didn’t know them. At least he didn’t think he knew them, he couldn’t remember. Well, he really couldn’t remember much of anything right know. He wasn’t even sure he knew himself. He wasn’t even sure what his name was. Where was he… How did he get here… why was he here... why couldn’t he remember?

_V…_ was that a name...? Was that _his_ name? No… No he didn’t think so, but it was confusing. He knew V… He was sure of that. He wanted to… save them.

~~**~~

He didn’t know how long he’d been there. floating in the dark, it seemed timeless. It could have been seconds, it could have been hours, it could have been a year as far as he could tell. He wasn’t sure where he was, or why, or how he got there. But he remembered his name now.

Johnny.

~~**~~

The voices still floated to him though the darkness. Not as clear as the first time, but he caught the occasional word through the muffled haze that seemed to surround him. 

_Plan. Silverhand. Night City. Dying. Border. Wake up. V. Bleeding. Badlands. Lucky. Wake up. Please._

There were more than the first two voices now, although he couldn’t tell exactly how many. Some of them seemed to blend together and he couldn’t distinguish one voice from the other. He heard the first voice, the voice he now could recognize as V, the most often. She often talks to him alone, or at least he doesn’t hear anyone else while she’s around. He wonders if this means he saved her. If he could just remember what happened.

~~**~~

He knows who he now. He is Johnny Silverhand. Deserter. Rockerboy. Terrorist. All round bastard.

He remembers all of it. Alt. Arisaka tower. Rouge. Smasher. And V. God he remembers V. A pang of guilt clutches around his heart when he thinks of her. That’s new he thinks. He hadn’t really felt guilty about something before. Everything was inconsequential to him before, someone else’s problem.

He remembers It felt like torture to him. Watching her slowly get worse, her body and mind slowly being taken over by him, with nothing he could do about it. He remembers when he stopped the elevator, taking control of her arm to push the button, the fear in her voice. And he remembers his own fear, when she’d passed out, and he couldn’t reach her, no matter how hard he tired. But, he could still hear her voice… she was talking to him, wherever he was. Which means she was alive, right? He’d… Gone with Alt? is this what being a part of her was like? This… nothingness... but something. And still being able to here V.

He doesn’t remember anything after speaking with V in Cyberspace. Seeing her red digital form, arguing with him of all things. She didn’t want him to leave, wanted to find a way for them both to live. One moment they were talking… and then he was here. Nowhere.

~~**~~

He was starting to feel things again. and everything… _Hurt_. There was pain firing in all his nerves all over his body. His head was throbbing, sharp pain spikes were running down his back and adding to the dull ache in his legs…. _His... legs...?_ Was this phantom pain from his non-existent body? Like what he had felt when he first lost his arm. Was he feeling the injuries that his body would have sustained from that last fight at the tower...? Or- no. He wouldn’t even entertain the idea that he actually had a body again. Because that would mean V... was... and he didn’t want to think about that. As long as she was alive, it was all worth it. He’d given his life for hers, and he couldn’t think of better thing to lay down his life for.

~~**~~

He’s… confused. He has a body, he’s pretty sure of that, can feel jolts of pain running down his spine, way to vivid to be phantom pains. But he hears V talking… wherever he, _they_ , are, she’s here, and talking to Panam. He tries to pay attention to their convocation.

_“… signs of improvement.”_ Panam was saying _. “but no guarantees, V.”_

He thinks they’re talking about him. Whatever is going on, he thinks he’s getting better too. He didn’t feel like he was floating anymore. He felt anchored. Secure. Still in darkness, but he didn’t feel like he was floating endlessly. He was more aware of his body; of the pain he was feeling. Or whoever’s body he was in, because as far as he knew his body was a skeleton and some rusted metal buried under the oil fields.

“ _I know…_ ” came V’s voice, she let out a sigh. _“One day at a time, right?”_

V sounded exhausted. She sounded like she did when he’d taken her to the Pistis Sophia, after she’d woken up, a pain in her chest and barely being able to walk. Like she was running on empty, holding on by a thread that was threatening to snap at any moment and send her plummeting to the ground.

_“Right. And anyway. We should talk about you.”_ Panam said.

_“one thing at a time, Panam.”_ V responded, “ _Besides, there’s not a lot to talk about on that front anyway. Mitch is still chasing down his old contacts, isn’t he?”_

_“Yes, but that’s not really what I meant.”_ Panam continued. _“I meant, how are you doing? I know you haven’t been sleeping and-“_

“ _Time is short… Sleeping seems like a waste.”_

_“If you don’t sleep, you’ll burn out so much faster. You-“_

The conversation faded to the background as his thoughts sawm around his head. _V_. It was odd not knowing exactly how she was feeling, what was going through her head. When he was in her mind, her thoughts and feelings flowed into him, and he could reassure her without even speaking, steel her nerves, calm her racing heart. He wanted to reach her now. He wanted to reassure her. He wanted to speak to her…

“…V” His voice was so small he thought as the blackness surrounded him, not his intention at all.

_“Johnny!?”_ he heard V say, her voice full of concern but also hopefulness, and then the nothingness came once again.

~~**~~

When Johnny Silverhand woke up it was sunrise, the pale orange light stung the edges of his vision. His eyelids were heavy, like he hadn’t opened them for so long that they resisted the unfamiliar movement. It took an enormous effort to even open them at all, and even more effort to try and keep them open. His whole body ached. Every inch. From his legs to his head. From dull aches, to sharp jolts, he felt it all. Even moving his eyes too look around like it hurt.

He was in a tent. He recognized it as an Aldecaldo tent, like the one V had awoken in after she’d passed out in front of Panam. He was vaguely aware of frantic voices around him, but he was more focused on breathing, the ache in his chest as his lungs rose and fell. The fact that he was even breathing at all.

And then she was there.

“V…” His voice was hoarse, and his throat felt like it had been fucked by a sandpaper covered dick. But it was worth it, her face lit up with a smile the second he spoke.

“Johnny… Oh my god.” She sounded so relieved, he heard her dragging something to his side and she sat down next to him. With the most effort he’d ever needed to do anything, he turned his head slightly to look at her. His neck protested, loudly.

“I don’t…” it was taking all his effort to stay awake. He felt Vs hand on his shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance.

“It’s okay.” She said softly, as he was rapidly losing the fight with his eyelids. “just rest… we can talk later”

~~**~~

The next time Johnny woke up he felt marginally better, as in he didn’t feel like he had been runover by semi-truck, just a minivan. He wasn’t sure what time it was, sometime at night he thought, Judging from the lack of light in the tent. When he turned his head slightly, he could make out a person sleeping, or at the very least laying down, on a cot opposite him.

He moved his hand to reach out to them, not entirely sure why, but just knowing he wanted to. With a protest of pain that shot out from his wrist, up his arm, and down his spine; his hand slid off the cot and thumped onto the floor. It felt like trying to move a waterlogged post, slow and impossibly heavy. He almost imdently wanted to bring his arm back up onto the bed, to a more comfortable position, but quickly decide that was way more effort that he was willing to put in right at this moment and would probably make him pass out again. He settled on moving his fingers, enjoying the feeling of his nails scraping though the carpet, or mat, or… whatever was on the floor of the tent, he couldn’t be bothered looking. He became aware that he couldn’t move his other hand, or his other arm in general. His arm that in his original body would have been his cybernetic arm. He hated that feeling. He let out a sigh.

He saw the person on the other cot stir and begin to sit up, it was V.

“Johnny.”

“Hey... V.” he croaked out. She stood and walked over to him, taking a seat by his side again. “I ...” he began, but wasn’t sure how to finished that sentence, or even what he wanted to say. she reached for something next to him, a bottle of water. She placed a straw in it and brought the other end to his lips. He drank. It made throat feel significantly better. When he was done, she put the bottle back down, somewhere just beyond his sight.

“Its okay.” She picked up his arm and placed it back on the bed, resting it across his chest. “first off, how are you feeling?”

“Fucking preem.” He said, throat still protesting slightly, “Apart from the fact that I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck or ten”

“Yeah, I figured...” V responded, her eyes looking over his body, as if she could see the pain. It was quite for a moment.

“V…” He said softly, breaking thought the quiet, she looked at him. “What the fuck happened… I don’t... I don’t remember”

She let out a sigh and looked up at a ceiling. He could see her eyes dart back and forth as she got her thoughts in order. The last time he’d seen her do this, they were on the roof above Mistys, making one last choice, and he was feeling sick to his stomach. But at this moment, it felt like a lifetime ago. Maybe it was. “Johnny, what’s the last thing you remember.”

“talking to you… inside Mikoshi and then… Nothing.” His voice came out more of a hushed whisper than he would have liked.

“okay… its… right.” She began. She slapped her hands down on her lap, he wasn’t sure why, maybe to psych herself up. “so, while we were talking in Mikoshi, before we came to a decision, Alt appeared. Do you remember?

He shook his head slightly. He knew he’d already came to a decision; he would die so she could live. It was V who was still wrestling with the choice. V continued. “She said there was an anomaly. Something that she didn’t account for, and then you disappeared. Just… Blinked out of existence right before my eyes.”

She paused to take a shaky breath.

“She then told me a location inside Arasaka Tower to go to, close to where we were, If I chose to go back to my body... which I obviously I did... and in that room was the anomaly. In that room was you.” She looked at Johnny. “Your body.”

He swallowed. “I don’t understand…. Grayson said…”

“He lied” V said. “Or he just genuinely didn’t know. But this” she placed her hand on his chest, right above his heart. “This is you. Not a clone, or a replica. You.”

He let that sink in for a moment. He’d known that he was in a body. He just hadn’t thought it had been his body. At least it was slightly less concerning that he couldn’t move his left arm now. The prosthetic must have been damaged. “...How?”

“Cryogenically frozen.” V said. “honestly, lucky you still have all of your fingers and toes. Cryo freezing’s a crapshoot even these days, I couldn’t imagine how it was back then.”

_Lucky to even be alive_ , he thought, from what little he knew about the Cryo technology from 2023, but leave it to Arasaka to have the top tier technology squirreled away in their basement. “so, is that why I feel like I’ve been run over?”

“Maybe partially.” V said. “but, near as I could tell... they froze your body right after they used soul killer on you. So all your injures from the tower, they’re still fresh.”

Oh. That made more sense now. He did fall out of a helicopter, and get his ass handed to him by Smasher. “so... Alt just uploaded my mind back into my body? And I was good to go.”

V smiled at him, a sad smile. He decided he didn’t like it. “not exactly… Johnny when I got to you, you were dead. You had no pulse, you weren’t breathing. Me and Panam just barely managed to get you back. We didn’t know if you were going to wake up…. I didn’t…. you scared the hell out of me.”

“It’s payback…” He said. She was upset, and he hated that it was because of him. Her hand was still on his chest, feeling his heartbeat. Despite the protests from his arm, he moved to place his hand over the top of hers, letting his fingers come to rest between hers. “For when I thought...”

“its not funny Johnny.” She sounded annoyed, but she didn’t move her hand. “You’ve been in a coma for nearly a month.”

_A month_ his mind echoed. He could feel himself slowly slipping back into unconsciousness, but he was suddenly aware of the implication of sleeping for a month. The moment V’s mind was placed back in her body, she was a ticking time bomb, and the clock was set for six months. And now that was down to five. She didn’t deserve that. His chest ached as guilt wrapped its self around his heart.

They were quiet. His hand was still over hers, their fingers interlaced. She had begun to move thumb, gently and slowly stroking the side of his palm. He in turn began to move his thumb, caressing the back of her hand. Her hands were so much smaller than his and they seemed much more delicate, but he knew they could be just as deadly as his own if she needed them to be. He wanted to ask more questions, but more than that he didn’t want this moment to end, just being able to touch her- actually touch her. And just enjoying this. This unspoken thing between them.

He was in love with her. He’d been aware that for a while now, although he couldn’t pinpoint exactly when it started. He thinks it might have started bubbling in his chest around the time he took her to the Pistis Sophia, when he’d committed to saving her.

He’d been in love before, he knows that. Alt. Rouge. And even Kerry at some points. But this… This was different. Those other times, love had burnt like an uncontrollable fire, consuming everything and everyone in its path and burning itself out in the process. It was all consuming, a fire they had lit under his skin that turned everything it touched to ash and ruin. But with V… with V it was different. It was…. Warmth. Like a fire you had built to keep the winter chill at bay. it surrounded you with its warmth and comfort so that whatever storm you were taking shelter from, didn’t matter. It still burned with ferocity, like all fires did, but it didn’t feel like it would consume him and everything thing in its path. It felt.. safe… like he needed this fire to survive, and not like he need to survive this fire.

He wanted to tell her, but as the thought crossed his mind, he felt his grasp on consciousness slip. “V…”

“You should rest..” She said, she had the softest smile on her face. “Its late. And we’ll have all the time in the world to talk when you’re stronger.”

He thought that sentiment was laughable, as his eyes slowly fell shut against his will. He’d always been weak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyo! I've sold my soul to this game. 
> 
> i so badly wanted Johnny an V to both get happy ending. so in typical me fashion, if the game won't give me that I'll do it my god damn self.


	2. Take it From Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title: [ Take it From Me](https://open.spotify.com/album/34wMiMwyKeqYMvBpWB2HaK?highlight=spotify:track:1oxPrSHvcFiX9cqiQXCIHE%22rel=%22nofollow%22) by KONGOS

Two

Take It From Me

_I woke up, don't recognize the bed_

_Took me a minute to clear my head_

_I try recalling but the blanks won't fill_

_Camera was rolling but I forgot the film_

_Take it from me_

_When you start it's just a matter of time_

_Any minute you will cross that line_

It had been a week since the first time he’d woken up. He could now stay wake for longer than 20 minutes. Maybe even a few hours at a time, so he figured he was improving. Everything still hurt, but slightly less so. In the time since that first convocation with V he’d learnt a few things about their current situation. They were somewhere west of the border; they’d been at this particular spot for around two weeks. It was apparently a good position for groups to split off and chase down various leads.

The tent he was in was V’s. One the Aldecaldos had given her, well since it was the kind of tent that folded into the back of a car, they had given her the whole damn car, as well as most of the stuff in said tent. What he thought was another cot opposite his, was actually an ancient pull-out couch. Something light and easy to move, like most of thing the nomads used. The pull-out couch was where V slept, although he hadn’t seen her use the bed function, just curled up on the couch and pass out, like she was doing now. The rest of the tent was bare bones. Temporary shelves and seats shoved to the outer areas so that the middle of the space was free for walking. Just small, simple, light things that could be easily picked up and thrown in the back of the jeep-like car in a heartbeat.

He pulled himself up to a sitting position, with effort he swung his legs out over the edge of the army-cot, bare feet resting on the mat thrown across the desert floor. He honestly was lucky that he could even still move his legs. Apart from the, sometimes, agonizing pain in his back, and the occasional migraines, which weren’t really a new thing if he was being honest, he was mostly ok. The only real issue from his body’s last tango with Arisaka was the fact that his cybernetic arm was busted. Not all that surprising since Adam fucking Smasher fired a bullet into it from point blank. But still, not bad for an over 80-year-old. Not bad for being alive at all.

He reached for the cigarettes and lighter V had sad on the shelf at the food of his cot. He had no idea what time it was, he thought it might have been dawn, but it also could have been sunset for all he knew. It was quiet, but he could still here a few people shuffling around outside. He watched V’s face in the ever-increasing light from outside, dawn it was then. He took a drag from his cigarette. 

He’d seen her sleeping face before, but it always surprised him to see just how at peace she seemed. Like her world hadn’t gone to shit and she wasn’t dying. She was curled up on her side, her chest raising and falling in steady rhythm. He felt a pull in his chest as he watched her slumber peacefully.

If he was being honest with himself, which he’d honestly had nothing but time to think and self-reflect these past few days. No one else ever made him feel the way V made him feel. He’d watched his partners sleep before, usually when he’d woken up for a smoke. But he never felt this urge, this pull in his gut, that made him just want to be close to them, just want to lay down beside them and hold them in his arms. Maybe it was a result of being in her head, and the feeling of just completely knowing her that set her apart from the others. He’d loved them all, in their own ways, but V was a step beyond that. He desperately wanted to tell her, but he didn’t know how to find the words, which he found ironic considering he use to write songs for a living. His mind was also occupied by the fact that she was dying, and how could he fix that. Thoughts and potential plans swirled around inside his head, how to save V…

“Uh. Excuse me, Mr Silverhand.” _Mr Silverhand_ , okay well now he really did feel 80 years old. He looked up from where he was sitting on the old cot, smoke in hand, to see one of the younger nomads, the kid was maybe 17, if that. He was holding an old acoustic guitar. The guitar caught Johnny’s attention more than the kid did.

“What?” he said rather flatly, mostly because he was annoyed by the fact that the kid had called him _Mr Silverhand._ But also partly because he didn’t want to talk to anyone at that moment, his mind was too busy, and he wasn’t drunk or high enough to calm it. He could see the panic light up in the kid’s eyes as he started speaking annoyingly fast. Johnny took another drag from his cigarette.

“uh i know you use to play in a band and well I found this guitar a while ago, I know its nothing special just a plain old acoustic guitar, but it sounds good and it works fine, so I thought I’d give it you, since I can’t play it,” he wondered if the kid was gonna take a breath or just keep talking ‘till he passed out. He dropped and stamped out his finished smoke. “and I know you can’t play at the moment either, but once Kevin, the uh, the Ripperdoc, fixes your arm, I thought it might... make you feel more at home here...”

As the kid trailed off, he sat the guitar on the ground and leaned it against the cot Johnny was sitting on. The boy hovered for a moment and then turned on his heel and walk quickly out the tent before Johnny could even think about saying anything. Probably for the best he thought.

He was still for a moment, and then reached for the guitar with his good arm. He held it by the neck and balanced it on his knee. it looked to be an early 2020 guitar; the body had been stained a dark, almost black, cherry colour. Not to his personal tastes, but it wasn’t the worst thing he’d seen done to a guitar; he supressed the image of a bright pink and plastered with kitten pictures guitar that flashed in his mind, some one-hit-wonder from 2022. It looked to be made of real, genuine wood too, none of that synthetic crap, but he couldn’t tell which kind without playing it. It looked to be well taken care of for being over 50 years old. The stings looked to be freshly replaced, he wondered if the kid had done that himself.

He’d had a guitar like this, the memory just popping into his head. A long time ago, before he joined the army, before he’d lost his arm, before he was Johnny Silverhand. He remembers just laying on his bed, absentmindedly stumming the guitar laying across his mid-section, his legs across Kerry’s lap. The other boy laughing at some damn thing he couldn’t remember, before Kerry dramatically fell back on the bed, making Johnny bounce up and play an awful note. The younger him laughed, and playfully kicked at his friend. God they must have been 12 or 13. That kid might as well be a completely different person. He hadn’t thought about that time in his life in such a long time. Back when he was almost…. Content.

“Johnny?” V’s voice brought him back to the present. He hadn’t noticed her wake, but she was Sitting up on the couch staring at him, a slightly concerned look on her face. But she looked more confused than anything.

“Hey.” He said quietly as he sat the guitar back to its resting place against the cot. V stood up and stretched. He guessed She had gone to sleep some point after he’d passed out yesterday… or earlier this morning. He had no idea. He did know she wasn’t getting nearly enough sleep; he wasn’t sure if that was his fault, or if it was her own demons that forced her awake.

“Where’d that come from?” She asked, gesturing to the guitar. She grabbed a bottle of water from a took a drink.

“Some kid just dropped by and gave it to me.” He answered. “Acting all nervous too. If I didn’t know any better I’d think he was a fan.”

V let out a small laugh, “You know Honestly, he probably was. You are surprisingly popular amongst the Aldecaldos. Apparently, you and their big head honcho use to run together back in the day…. What was his name, Panam told me….”

“Santiago.” Johnny added. The name conjured an image of the man arguing with Johnny and Rouge about how the Arasaka tower bombing was a stupid plan and basically suicide. That was the last time they had seen each other. He could only imagine the kinds of things he had told the Nomads. “He still around?”

V shrugged. “You know, I didn’t think to ask.”

She walked over to the tent opening, pushing one of the door flaps open and looking out into the camp, she swayed a little, looking unsteady on her feet. He wondered if it was because her head was bothering her.

“Are you alright?” He asked, she turned to look at him, hand still holding the tent door open.

“Preem,” she was lying, “You?”

“fuckin’ Preem.” He was lying. He quickly changed the subject, not quite ready to address that fresh wound. “Nomads have a Ripperdoc, Right?”

“Yeah, Kevin.” She let the tent opening drop closed and took a few steps toward him, “Do you wanna see if he can fix your arm?”

He nodded. “It’s driving me crazy.”

V Laughed. “Is that any different that you usually are? You always were kind of Crazy.”

He gave her an annoyed look; he didn’t think it worked as well as it usually did since he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses, so he couldn’t peer at her judgingly over the top of them.

“I could go see if he’s free, If you think you’re feeling up to it.” She added, after she was finished laughing at him.

“I feel fine, V.”

~~**~~

He could move his arm again. It had that static like sensation of the feeling coming back into a limb after sitting on it for too long, the Ripperdoc had said that feeling would go away in time, and it should feel like it always had. At least he hopped it would. Johnny’s arm was the Oldest version of Cyberwear he’d ever seen. It had taken Kevin the Ripperdoc nearly three hours to repair.

Johnny was laying on the old couch in V’s tent. He held his Silver arm over his head, watching the chrome finger open and close, responding to his thoughts just as well as they always had. He couldn’t deny they Ripperdoc had done a pretty damn good job, it looked almost as good as new.

he heard footsteps and the sound of the tent door opening and fluttering closed again. V came into view in his peripheral vision. He’d left her talking to Panam about 20 minutes ago. Wanting to lay down to try and alleviate some of the pain in his back.

“Didn’t expect you back so soon,” He said, still watching his fingers, he turned his hand so that his palm was facing the ceiling, watching the mechanical knuckles move. “Thought girl talk was meant to last for hours.”

“Sorry if I interrupted you’re plans to Jerk off with your new-old hand.” V added dryly. She was placed her hands on her hips, fixing him with a fake apologetic look.

Johnny let his arm fall behind his head, laying across the arm rest of the couch, his other hand was laying across his stomach, fingers drumming on the inch of exposed skin where his tank top had ridden up when he laid down. He turned his head slightly to face her, his cheek resting in the bend of his metal elbow, a wicked smirk on his face, he raised his eyebrows at her. “You know its been fifty year, Might be a bit pent up.”

“So you’ll only need three minutes then, like a touch started Virgin.” V added, Johnny’s smirk fell from his face, which made V laugh. “Anyway. Mitch has finally managed to get a hold of his contacts, and they’re holding a meeting. They being Panam, Mitch, and a few of the others. About… You know.”

“How to not let you die.” Johnny added, She nodded.

“I just wanted to see if you wanted to come.” She finished. She wasn’t looking at him. Apparently finding something remarkably interesting down the far end of the tent. He’d already decided he wasn’t a fan of not being able to tell exactly what as going on in her head.

“Am I invited?” he asked, her eyes shot back to his, confusion clear in them.

“Of course you’re invited. This is me inviting you.” She answered, like he’d just asked the stupidest question. Her voice wavered a little, not like she truly angry, more like she was nervous.

They were silent for a few moments, just holding each other’s gaze. the more he looked at her, the more he could see how anxious she was. He wondered what Panam and her had talked about, and just what had set her anxiety level to a nine. Was it the thought of Mitch’s contacts proving to be dead ends? Or was she just as worried about there being a small thread of hope that she could cling on to?

He sat up on the couch, swinging his legs over and sitting right in front of V. he reached for her hand with his metal one. She didn’t resist as he took her hand in his, running his thumb over the back of her fingers. He felt the static feeling in his hand get stronger as he saw her gently squeeze his hand with hers.

“Do you want me to go with you?” He asked quietly, watching his chrome thumb, gently run across her fingers.

“Yes.” She answered in barely a whisper. He looked up to her face. He could see tears in the corners of her eyes.

He stood up from the couch, still holding her hand and with barely any space between them. He placed his other hand on her cheek.

“Then I’ll go” He ran his thumb over her cheek bone, his other hand giving her hand a gentle squeeze. “All you had to do was ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok, second Chapter done! this chapter had a different title until five minutes ago. I'm not gonna tell you what song it was, because it might be used later on.
> 
> Let me know what you think!


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